Child Grooms: Prevalence and Correlates of Early Marriage among Men

Kerry MacQuarrie, ICF International
Jeffrey Edmeades, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)

Early marriage among girls is frequently problematized for the negative effects it has on young women’s health and life options. However, it is unknown to what extent young men also experience early marriage and whether men who marry as boys experience the same types of disadvantage as do women who marry as girls. This study uses men’s Demographic and Health Survey data from 52 countries to document the prevalence of marriage among men at ages younger than 18 and its patterns across selected socio-demographic characteristics. For 9 countries with high prevalence of early marriage among men, we estimate multivariate regression models with age at marriage as a covariate for six outcomes: current use of contraception, number of children ever born, lifetime number of sexual partners, experience of STI symptoms, employment status, and educational attainment.